Habeas Corpus: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #680

by Amanda L. Tyler

Legal scholar Amanda L. Tyler discusses the history and future of habeas corpus in America and around the world.

The concept of habeas corpus--literally, to receive and hold the body--empowers courts to protect the right of prisoners to know the basis on which they are being held by the government and grant prisoners their freedom when they are held unlawfully. It is no wonder that habeas corpus has long been
considered essential to freedom.

For nearly eight hundred years, the writ of habeas corpus has limited the executive in the Anglo-American legal tradition from imprisoning citizens and subjects with impunity. Writing in the eighteenth century, the widely influential English jurist and commentator William Blackstone declared the
writ a bulwark of personal liberty. Across the Atlantic, in the leadup to the American Revolution, the Continental Congress declared that the habeas privilege and the right to trial by jury were among the most important rights in a free society.

This Very Short Introduction chronicles the storied writ of habeas corpus and how its common law and statutory origins spread from England throughout the British Empire and beyond, witnessing its use today around the world in nations as varied as Canada, Israel, India, and South Korea. Beginning
with the English origins of the writ, the book traces its historical development both as a part of the common law and as a parliamentary creation born out of the English Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, a statute that so dramatically limited the executive's power to detain that Blackstone called it no
less than a second Magna Carta.

The book then takes the story forward to explore how the writ has functioned in the centuries since, including its controversial suspension by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It also analyzes the major role habeas corpus has played in such issues as the World War II incarceration
of Japanese Americans and the US Supreme Court's recognition during the War on Terror of the concept of a citizen enemy combatant. Looking ahead the story told in these pages reveals the immense challenges that the habeas privilege faces today and suggests that in confronting them, we would do
well to remember how the habeas privilege brought even the king of England to his knees before the law.

Genres: Law, Audiobook, Nonfiction, History

156 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2021

Reviews

[Matthew Schreiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idk who this is for.
Is it a reference book? If so it is too storied, detail oriented, and fun-fact-filled.
Is it a history book? Seems more likely. And if so, far too technical and legal jargon-y.
As someone who was looking for both, I was pleasantly surprised and thought it was helpful.
Blackstone was right when he said that Habeas Corpus was the second magna carta.

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

My main takeaway: Habeas Corpus and national security go together like New Year’s resolutions and carrot cake.

This book focuses on The Great Writ within, almost exclusively, British & American legal history—from its origins with the Magna Carta in 1600s Britain, to its role in the American Revolution, to its wartime suspension under Lincoln, its expansion as a tool for civil rights during Reconstruction, Japanese internment during WWII, Guantanamo Bay in the 2000s, and even the 2020 supreme court case Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam.

I wonder if future editions will include a Trump 2025 chapter (a la El Salvadoran prisons)...

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The legal scholar Amanda L. Tyler published Habeas Corpus: A Very Short Introduction in 2021. I read the book on my Kindle. The book has illustrations. The book has a section called “further reading” (Tyler 143-146). The book also includes a section of references and an index. Tyler writes that the writ of habeas corpus, which means to hold the body of the prisoner in the Latin language, has a history that dates back to the 17th Century in England. The writ of Habeas Corpus is defined by Tyler as follows: “courts take jurisdiction over the prisoner and demand that the relevant custodian (typically the jailer) present legal cause for the prisoner’s detention” (Tyler 2). Tyler writes that the origins of Habeas Corpus lie in the Magna Carta of 1215 between King John and English nobles created the concept of due process in the common law tradition that led in England in the 17th Century to the concept of Habeas Corpus (Tyler 1-2). The idea of the Habeas Corpus was made into the laws of countries that were former British colonies, as well as international law and the laws of the European Union (Tyler 3). Tyler’s book mainly looks at the concept of Habeas Corpus in Great Britain and the United States. The book traces the history of the idea and understanding of Habeas Corpus from 17th Century England until Great Britain and the United States in the 21st Century. Tyler’s book is a well-done introduction to the concept of Harbas Corpus.